ProSiebenSat.1 Media believes that price increases by U.S. streaming giant Netflix could ease competitive pressures on the German group's core TV business and is bullish on growth at its e-commerce arm, CEO Max Conze said. Conze took the helm at the Munich-based broadcaster last June but has had a rough welcome from investors who have sent its shares to seven-year lows on doubts that he can revive its ailing free-to-air TV business. The former CEO of UK appliances company Dyson told Reuters that plans to relaunch a German streaming venture in cooperation with Discovery Inc, public broadcaster ZDF, publisher Axel Springer and possibly others were on track for late summer.

Disney-owned Marvel Studios is ending the third act of an unprecedented 11 years of interconnected storytelling across 22 movies. Warner Bros. is shaking up its strategy after its own shared cinematic universe based on the Marvel model sputtered. The 19-year-old X-Men series looks poised to come to a conclusion, as Disney is about to take control of the property.

This weekend's Barron's cover story features the top picks from the 2019 Barron's Roundtable. Other featured articles offer bargain gold mining stocks and how to play the life sciences boom. Also, the ...

By Kane Wu and Heekyong Yang HONG KONG/SEOUL (Reuters) - Chinese gaming titan Tencent Holdings Ltd is considering a bid for the holding company that controls South Korean gaming company Nexon, two sources ...

A Brief Synopsis of Netflix’s Q4 EarningsNetflix’s earningsNetflix (NFLX) reported mixed results for the fourth quarter of 2018 after the closing bell on January 17. The online video streaming giant exceeded its earnings estimates but failed to

Walt Disney Co.-backed "Glass", the new film directed by M. Night Shyamalan, is expected to dominate the box office over the long holiday weekend, according to MKM analyst Eric Handler. The film, which brings together characters and narratives from his previous films, is expected to boost the weekend gross to $124 million, up 11% from the year-earlier period, Handler said in a Friday note. "Not only will Glass likely provide a significant boost for the box office but the four-day holiday weekend should benefit as the MLK holiday in 2018 occurred a week earlier," Handler wrote. "Last year's same weekend saw its Top 10 films gross $112mn over the four-day weekend (although Monday was not a holiday and schools and businesses were open) and was led by Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle with $20.7mn." The film, which stars Bruce Willis, James McAvoy, Samuel L. Jackson and Sarah Paulson, is expected to chalk up box revenue of $64 million, he said. "The Upside," starring Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart, is expected to take second place with $14.5 million, according to Handler. "Aquaman" is expected to take third slot with box office of $11 million, which will push it above the $300 million-mark. Disney shares were slightly lower Friday, but have gained 0.5% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 has fallen 4.8% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen 5.3%.

It will be a third, more family-focused streaming service, on top of Disney’s existing ESPN+ and Hulu, which will soon be majority owned by the Burbank, California-based entertainment giant. Among traditional media companies, Disney is making the biggest bet on streaming and monthly subscriptions. After that deal was announced in late 2017, Disney reorganized its business to create a stand-alone direct-to-consumer division for streaming.

Let's take a look at what we learned from CEO Reed Hastings and other executives on Netflix's Q4 earnings call to help evaluate Netflix as the likes of Disney (DIS), Apple (AAPL), and others enter the streaming market.

The Walt Disney Company (DIS) today provided detailed financial information regarding its recently formed Direct-to-Consumer and International business segment, offering additional insight into the Company’s growing DTC business and its investment in technology and original content.

Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) stock is down about 2% after it reported earnings yesterday that just missed growth estimates. Earnings came in at 30 cents per share of Netflix stocks against analyst estimates of 24 cents. Subscriber additions were also ahead of projections -- by nearly 1 million in the case of international subscriptions. But revenues of $4.19 billion fell slightly short of estimates for $4.21 billion.
More importantly, Netflix's forecast for the first quarter of 2019, was well below the 82 cents per share of earnings and $4.61 billion of revenue that Wall Street had been projecting. NFLX projects earnings of $253 million, 56 cents per share, on revenue of $4.49 billion.
The selling, however, didn't quite match the buying of two days earlier, after Netflix announced a 13% price hike, to $13 per month for its most popular viewing plan. That sent shares up 6%.
InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips
### Netflix Stock's Story Remains Intact
What matters is that the growth story for Netflix stock remains intact. Although investors are paying a high price for it. At a market cap of $153 billion, Netflix is selling at 121 times earnings, and almost 10x revenue. Even with the predicted doubling of earnings in 2019, you're still looking at a forward P/E near 82.
* 7 Retail Stocks to Buy for the Rise of Menswear
What justifies the price is the audience, 80 million households viewed Susanne Bier's Bird Box, a number that is light years ahead of most broadcast audiences. For comparison 2018's Super Bowl had 103.4 million viewers.
But Super Bowl numbers are down, and Netflix' global audience is now 139 million. Even that trend is in Netflix' favor.
Success, however, has a cost. In response to moves by Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA), AT&T (NYSE:T) and Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) to cut into its U.S. streaming market, Netflix raised its budget for producing new content. NFLX spent an estimated $8 billion on content this year, and analysts expect that to rise to $16 billion in by 2022.
The U.S. price hike, which was not replicated globally, also cuts into the consumer budgets AT&T and Disney are going after. The more money people are already spending on Netflix, the less likely they are to add a second or third streaming channel.
Top directors and producers are flocking to Netflix not just for the money, but for the creative control the service offers.
A May 2018 deal with Barack and Michelle Obama was typical of the sort of unique programming Netflix tends to deliver. The price, somewhere between $65 and $99 million, was higher than the couple earned for their autobiographies and quite high for people who haven't produced TV before. Total creative control, which Netflix has been giving talent since 2011, should keep it competitive even as rivals ramp up their budgets.
### The Bottom Line for Netflix Stock
As I wrote in October, Netflix has become a global presence, while its rivals are just approaching the U.S. market. Netflix stock remains very pricey but it has managed to grow into its ever-higher valuations.
Five years ago, when Netflix shares were at about $60, they were considered expensive by analysts who compared it with HBO. A year ago, at $190, they were considered very expensive by analysts comparing them with Time Warner. They opened for trade January 18 at $352 per share, and you'll hear the same talk about how expensive they are.
* 7 Companies Apple Should Consider Buying
But those who have bought along the way have been richly rewarded. Those who bought Netflix into its bear market bottom of $246, just one month ago, are sitting on gains of 43%.
Dana Blankenhorn is a financial and technology journalist. He is the author of a new mystery thriller, The Reluctant Detective Finds Her Family, available now at the Amazon Kindle store. Write him at danablankenhorn@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter at @danablankenhorn. As of this writing he owned no shares in companies mentioned in this article.
### More From InvestorPlace
* 2 Toxic Pot Stocks You Should Avoid
* 7 Companies Apple Should Consider Buying
* 7 Beaten-Up Housing Stocks Due for a Bounce Back
* Take Buffett's Advice: 5 Vanguard Funds to Buy
Compare Brokers
The post Don't Bet Against Netflix Stock. Just Don't. appeared first on InvestorPlace.

The quarterly results Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) posted after Thursday's closing bell rang cold have been worse, but most investors decided they should have been better.
Granted, owners of Netflix stock can be a tough crowd to please. They've become accustomed to not just meeting estimates, but handily topping them. When that didn't happen by all key measures, the stock's steep valuation and unfairly high expectations quickly turned into a liability for the company's stock, sending it lower by 3% in Thursday's after-hours trading action.
Of course, the ever-changing landscape of the streaming video market along with a lackluster first quarter view may have nudged investors to that conclusion.
InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips
### Netflix Earnings Recap
For the fourth fiscal quarter ending in December, Netflix turned $4.187 billion worth of revenue into an operating profit of 30 cents per share of Netflix stock. Analysts were collectively calling for sales of $4.21 billion, versus the company's previously-offered revenue guidance of $4.199 billion. Fourth-quarter sales were also up 27.4% year-over-year. The bottom line was down from the year-ago comparable profit of 41 cents, but better than the anticipated 24 cents.
Netflix's profits have been tough for anyone to handicap, as spending on international expansion -- and the subscriber additions linked to that expansion -- has varied profitability from one quarter to the next.
Arguably more important to shareholders, however, was the streaming giant's subscriber growth of 8.84 million -- a record. Pros had been calling for 7.6 million new accounts, down from the 8.2 million added during the fourth quarter of 2017. The company had previously suggested Q4's subscriber additions would also be around 7.6 million.
With no margin for error on any of these criteria, relatively modest beats on a couple of fronts and tepid Q1 guidance, though, shareholders readily turned into sellers.
### Tougher Competition Ahead
The lackluster quarterly report comes at a time when Netflix stock owners already had much to think about, for better and worse.
Earlier in the week, Netflix announced it would be raising the price of its monthly subscription cost by $1 to $2, depending on which plan subscribers currently utilize. Past price increases have been met with mixed responses, with many of them spurring a measurable slowdown in subscriber additions. But, neither revenue growth nor subscriber growth has ever slowed or contracted permanently.
The competitive backdrop is different this time, however, which could finally lead to a mostly unexpected headwind.
Competitors, simply put, are finally learning how to compete with Netflix, and are legitimately trying to do so. Hulu, a competing streaming platform backed by Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS), Twenty-First Century Fox (NASDAQ:FOXA) and Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA), just announced it had expanded its customer base to 25 million thanks to the addition of 8 million viewers last year. It's still a fraction of Netflix's total customer count, but it's notable that Netflix isn't the default go-to choice it was just a few years ago.
Meanwhile, so-called "skinny bundles" that don't offer as much variety as traditional cable television does do offer most of what viewers want to watch, continue to gain traction. Dish Network (NASDAQ:DISH) venture SlingTV, for instance, added another 26,000 users during the third quarter of last year, bringing the total headcount to just under 2.4 million.
Most major cable names also now offer some sort of portable version of their service along with a respectable library of on-demand programming, if only as an effort to quell the cord-cutting movement partially driven by skinny bundles.
These developments may have contributed to Netflix's user-growth shortfall, though much of the headwind remains in front of the company. Disney is also developing a standalone streaming service that should launch later this year after rolling out a successful streaming version of its ESPN channel last year.
Netflix still dominates the space, to be clear, and Netflix stock remains the only pure play for investors looking to plug into the opportunity. But, the company's future may not be quite as heroic as its past now that the market is more saturated and competition is heating up.
Of particular concern is the level of spending Netflix will have to take on in an effort to attract and retain consumers that are weighing alternatives. Last quarter's cost of revenue was 23% higher on a year-over-year basis, reaching $2.73 billion. As of the previous quarter, a total of $19 billion in content spending commitments were already on its books.
### Looking Ahead for Netflix Stock
As of the most recent look prior to the company's fourth-quarter earnings report, analysts were calling for 2019 revenue of $19.9 billion and earnings of $4.11 per share, both of which would be well up from year-ago levels. Nearer-term, analysts are expecting a per-share profit of 84 cents for the quarter now underway, on sales of $4.60 billion. The company expects per share of 56 cents on revenue of $4.49 billion.
Subscriber additions for the first quarter are expected to reach, on average, 7.78 million versus 7.41 million for the comparable quarter a year earlier, though the company said in its Q4 review that it's modeling net additions of 8.9 million.
* 7 Companies Apple Should Consider Buying
The fourth-quarter and full-year report will likely spur some changes to these outlooks, though minor ones at best.
As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. You can follow him on Twitter, at @jbrumley.
### More From InvestorPlace
* 2 Toxic Pot Stocks You Should Avoid
* 7 Companies Apple Should Consider Buying
* 7 Beaten-Up Housing Stocks Due for a Bounce Back
* Take Buffett's Advice: 5 Vanguard Funds to Buy
Compare Brokers
The post Netflix Stock Cools Down, But It Still Dominates the Space appeared first on InvestorPlace.